Louis eouanet



L. ROUANET.

,CONSTRUCTION OF SOLID WHEELS. APPLICATION FILED AUGA. 19H,

Patented May 13, 1919.

hill

llli

llh

hli

MEG

teach menus, or aver-roar, r 11:.

Specification of letters Patent.

l T (HE.

GUTRUCTION 0F SULID Patented May l, 1919.,

. hpplieawou filed august t, 1917. Serial No. 1184-,497.

To all whom it me concern:

Be it lmown .t at' ll, lLouIs ROUANET, a citizen of the Reublic ofFrance, residing at Rue Fra Lin, lvry-Port, Seine, in the Republic ofFrance, have-invented new and useful improvements in the Construction ofSolid eels, of which the following is a specification. V i

The present invention'relata; to improvements in the construction ofsolid wheels.

it the present time the construction of solid wheels presents greatdiihculties which are mainly encountered in the operation oi centering.The greater part oithe present solid wheels are obtained by the stampingor other similar process applied to a metal disk. lln some cases thework is carried out upon a sheet of metal which retains its initialthickness alter the process, or in.

other cases, the operation is performed by the repouss process or againby lathe work, so as to obtain different thicknesses 0i metalcorresponding to the diderent circumferential strains which the saidthicknesses are called upon to support, it being essential to realizesuch conditions in order to obtain the required solidity of the wheel.

en the work is carried out upon a metal sheet which is relativelythinwithreierence to the eventual weight" of the'wheel, it is requiredto strengthen the central part of the disk forming the body of the wheelso that it will be able to withstand the strains'placed upon it duringthe running of the vehicle which carries the wheel, and this without daner ofbreaking.

T e, disks hitherto produced are in all 'cases designed to be assembledeither with a lid tli

rim or a hub, or sometimes with both, and the process of centering thedisks-with these latter parts presents diiliculties which are almostinsurmountable, for practice it is found very diilicult to. obtainperlect euriaces on such disks.

The object of the present invention is the construction of a wheel oithis class by the use of a: metal disk which is stamped out of sheetmetal, the disk being flan ed at the outer part so as to obtain an annuar portion adapted tor fitting on the usual wheel rim in any suitableway, while the inner part of the wheel is flanged in the contrary senseso asv to be mounted upon the forming the wheel hub.

Disks of this kind can be stamped out of- .relatively thin metal, owingto the fact that sleeve or socket the stamped disk retains the initialthickness of the metal, but the wheel thus formed is intended to bestrengthened 'by the use of a spoke device in which the spokes areattached at one end to the outer flange oi the wheel and at the other toone end of the hub upon which said wheel has been already mounted bymeans of its flange. The spokes can be mounted with their ends in aseries of cavitles in the outer flange of the disk or again n a set ofcavities formed at the same time In the flange and the wheel rim, thislatter design being employed in order to obtain a better propulsiveefitect between the two parts and to suppress one of the rows oi rivetsrequired for attaching the outer flange to the rim.

The spokes might even be attached at any desired height upon the body ofthe disk itself, but the essential result to be obtained here is amethod of rapid centering for the carry out such. centering upon a soliddisk wheel), and the spoke method also allows of compensating for anydeformation oi the wheel as well as to suppress the special reinforcingparts employed in usual disk wheels, on the other hand the'use'oi suchspokes will give a great lightness as well as a much greater strengththan usual. ll/lachine work will also be much reduced since the diskwill now have a uniform thickness and the wheel thus obtained will alsoossess a much greater amount of elasticity t an heretoiore.

Tn the class oi new industrial roducts, the resentinvention relates to weels ailording a combination oil a spoke wheel and a solid wheel, thuspresenting the advantages of the two systems and suppressing thedrawbacks inherent in ea h of these two types oi-wheel, it bein observedthat the operation of cleaning file spoke wheels is a very long andunpractical one, while the htl llh

ltd

usual type of solid wheel is very difficult to realize in practice owingto the difiiculties encountered in the centering operation.

The method-will be better understood by referring. to the accompanyingdrawing.

' Figure 1 shows a vertical section of a constructional form of thepresent device.

Fig. 2 is an alternative form of the same device.

According to the example shown in the drawing, the solid wheel withmetal disk and spoke device is a removable wheel in which the propellingsleeve or socket 1 provided with teeth 2 is centered upon the false hub:3 mounted inthe usual practice upon the axle 4 through the ball-bearing5. The

body of this wheel is a metal disk 6 flanged at its outer part-so astoform an annular portion 7 for carryin the wheel rim 8;. the disk 6 isalso flanged 1n the contrary sense at its'inner part in order to formthe annular portion 9 which is centered upon the outer 10 of thesleeve 1. The two parts 9 and were held in close connection by means ofaring 11 with a conical art 12 against which is screwed the tighteningnut 13.

On the inside 4 of the above-mentioned sleeve is a conical part 14 incontact with a corresponding-conical part of the false hub, and also aflanged portion 15 containing a set of holes corresponding to the numberof spokes employed. The "spokes 16 are attached to saidflange 15 bytheir ends 17, and the tightenin nuts of these spokes are disposedwithint e cavities 19 in the flange 7 of the disk 6. Thej wheel rim 8designed to receive the pneumatic tire is attached-to the flange'7bymeans of one. or more rows of rivets 21. 'The tightening nuts 20 of thespokes 16 are held in this we between one side of the cavity .19 and t erim 8, and this avoids all possibl d terioration of the air chamber bythe @611 the spokes 16. In the alternative design shown in Fig. 2, thetlghtening nuts 20- are-placed within cavities formed in the wheel rim-8and in the flange 7, and this method {has the advantage of giving ameansbi propulsion between the two parts 7 and 8, however these partsare always closelyconnected by the use of one or more rows of rivets 21.

Instead of placing the spokes upon the flange 7 of the disk 6, thespokes may be of suppressing the reinforcing disks such as are indicatedfor instance in the French Patent No. 480611 dated January 4th, 1916, inthe name of Socit Franeaise des Roues Amovibles.

' A wheel of the present design thus presents on the outer or visibleside 'a perfectly flat surface which can be readily cleaned, and on theother hand it also has the advantages of the usual spoke wheel onaccount of the spoke construction, this being concealed by the disk6,but which nevertheless gives almost as much elasticity to the wheel asin the case of an ordinary spoke wheel.

Having now described my invention, what I claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent is:

1. A wheel for automobiles containing, in combination, a hub, a rim, astamped disk flanged at the center and at the periphery, means forfixing the inner flange of the disk upon the hub, means for fixing theouter flange to the rim, and metal wire spokes connecting the hub andthe peripheral flange of the disk, substantially as described and forthe purpose set forth.

2. A wheel for automobiles containing in combination, a hub, a rim, astamped isk flanged-in opposite directions at the center and at theperiphery, and having on the peripheral portion a set of cavities eachpossessing a hole, means for fixing the inner flange of the disk uponthe hub, rivets for fixing the peripheral flange of the disk to thewheel rim, metal wire spokes, means for fixing said spokes to the hub,and tightening nuts held in the cavities of the peripheral .flange ofthe disk, passing through holes in these cavities and screwed upon theouter ends of said spokes, substantially as described and for thepurpose set forth. 7

3. A wheel for automobiles containing, in combination, a false hubprovided witn coupling teeth and having a conical part, a sleeveprovided with teeth engaging with those of the'false hub, said sleevehaving a cylindrical bearing part on one side and on t e other a conicalbearing part extended I by a flange, a hub, a stamped disk having aninner flange and also a peripheral flan directed in the contrary senseto the prece ing and carrying a set of cavities each possessing a hole.means 'for fixing the inner j flange of the disk upon the sleeve and forfixin the sleeve upon the false hub, rivets for xin the peripheralflange of the disk to the w eel rim, metal wire spokes, means for fixingsaid spokes to the above mentioned flange of the sleeve, and tighteningnuts held in the cavities of the peripheral flange of the disk, passingthrough holes in these cavities and screwed upon the outer ends of saidspokes, substantially as described and for the purpose set forth.

l. A wheel for automobiles comprising a In testimony whereof I havesignedmy false hub, teeth formed on the hub, a sleeve name to thisspecificetion in the presence surrounding the. hub, teeth formed on theof twq-subscribing witnesses.

sleeve and engageable with the teeth on the V LOUIS ROUANET. hub, a rim,:1 disk'secured to said sleeve and Witnesses: to said rim, and Wirespokes connecting said LoUIs MOSES,

sleeve and rim. CHAS. P. PREssLY.

